Bungonia-Nationalpark

#throwbackfriday to a few years back at Bungonia.
Despite a minor navigational complication here only months before on a half day hike, @justaddlib and I still figured that driving straight from a 12 hour night shift to tackle our first self guided Ozzie #canyon was a great idea. With no wetsuits and summer fading fast, the wide sunny gorges of Bungoniab made perfect sense over the dark, frosty slots of the Blue Mountains.
Spot the pristine white rope, shiny new brain bucket, Dunlop Volleys and brand new harness.
The sun came out, we completed our exploration then promptly had a "quick" nap at the bottom of the exit climb. 3 hours later with a touch of exposure we woke up and frantically climbed the ridge by Jerra Falls to reach mobile reception and get a "Late" message out, preventing the owner of our loaned vehicle calling in a rescue.
500m of mud, scree and prickly bushes later, later, we made the top to be greeted by a pack of biscuit-wielding #Boyscouts who had heard from a local police officer checking our car that we were overdue and somewhere in Bungonia Creek. We were black with mud and covered in blood from crawling through scrub.
Despite requests to Goulburn Police Rescue for a helo-evac by our panicked emergency contact (still not sure if it was us or "Marvin the Nissan Micra" she was hoping to be airlifted) we were told that the police were going to give us 12 more hours to turn up before they came looking. Our Trip-Intention suggested we were well prepared and capable enough to deal with a benighting. Little did they know, we had water damaged hommus, no lavoche and our taramasalata had been in direct sun for quite sometime. Fortunately we still had half a thermos of Negroni and half a bag of Allens Snakes so we probably would have been fine.
Fast forward to the start of summer 2018/19; @mimpop prefers to keep Marvin the Micra closer to home and we tend to add a buffer to our expected return time. That pristine white rope had been retired, those Dunlops have no sole and we have met some of the most amazing new friends.--------------------2019 we're coming for you!! #canyoneering#bluemountainsaustralia#australiagram#wildernessculture